Woodcut by Joseph Crawhall, Newcastle wood engraver (1821–1896)
The Vapours
By Contributor: AG
Investment opportunity
In ten years time Rosehill will be like Notting Hill you mark my words. link
Announcement
The record collection of A.Gilhespy will be for sale in the St. Oswald’s Hospice charity shop, Chillingham Road, Newcastle NE6, from next week. It comprises of vinyl and CDs bought out of keen interest in the music or packaging, spirited early-twenties Talking Heads completism, or pity for poorly received touring bands. It is being sold in an effort to rid a small apartment of pity.
¡Vive la Council!
The Revolution hits another stumbling block
Four members of revolutionary communist group the Revolutionary Communist Group face fines of £450 each after magistrates in Newcastle convicted them of collecting money in public without a permit. The group were nabbed on the technicality that shouting at shoppers—enmiserabled victims of capitalist oppression—through a loudhaler from behind a wallpaper pasting table does not constitute having an open-air meeting, at which a collection would be lawful. The judgement is being seen as a second victory by the local Council in their campaign to rid the city of communists, following the recent banishing of a bongo player.
Revolutionary Tom Vickers (suspected facebook page here—admittedly based mainly on the friends list, which contains some people who use Che Guevara as their profile picture) has labelled the judgement “a fundamental attack on democracy”. He also stated his intent to defy the ruling, saying “without accepting donations from just members of the public, then there’s no money to produce banners”.
The Revolutionary Communist Group actively supports the regime in Cuba, known for locking up pro-democracy campaigners. As good marxists they almost certainly don’t believe in money, so please send solidarity donations straight to The Vapours, where money is held in great esteem, and spent on much better things than banners, Freedom Lager and headlice treatments.
Ratatat at the End Bar, 28/07/08
Photo: A. Gilhespy
Blood Red Shoes, Trencín, Slovakia 19/07/08
Vapours contributors Adam Gilhespy and Andrew Fenwick were sent to report on the Pohoda Festival in Slovakia for a rival publication. Initial suspicions that the festival was a massive fundraising effort for an anti-abortion campaign proved unfounded, and Enjoy Bratislava and Slovakia magazine made a superb guide for the weekend:
Stop to smoking
“The [no smoking] act actually in force orders the owners of bars to separate these two [smoking and non-smoking] zones but in practice often the imaginary boundary is formed by vacuum or other meaningless absurdity.”
Drivers, Beware!
“The influence of drugs used before the ride is different. Some kinds suppress and slow down the reactions, others on the contrary evoke accelerated reactions and a sensation of dauntlessness.”
Celebrations of victory all over Europe
“A war that spread almost to the whole world, killed tens of million of civilians and soldiers, destroyed innumerable quantity of towns and caused property and cultural damage of incalculable dimensions.”
Undignified primacy
“Despite the tendency of constant reduction of unemployment, in the scale of all EU member countries we are still in the desperate last place.”
Photo: A. Gilhespy
Items I didn’t win
Letterpress printing block: “Save safe with Northern Rock” (link)
“Probably worth more than your shares“
Archbishop charity skydive ends in disaster
Photo: A. Gilhespy (click for larger view)
Local music celebrity roundup
Singer songwriter Beth Jeans Houghton, touted as Newcastle’s answer to Amy Winehouse because of her wild behaviour, was injured when she was hit by a falling pair of shoes that became dislodged from the Heaton Park shoe tree as she attempted to add a pair of her own. Be wary of playing football with Maximo Park’s Paul Smith, as he is reputed to be a goal muncher. On the plus side he is a willing lender of DVDs. Red Monkey/Chronicity member and Slampt! co-founder Pete Dale lists ‘moisturising’ in the hobbies and interests section of his CV. The talents of Sunderland brothers Peter and David Brewis appear to end at basic electrical fault-finding, as they have been listening to their ELP tape through only one speaker for weeks now.
Happy Tax Freedom Day 2008
Economists at the Adam Smith Institute report that today is the UK’s tax freedom day: the day when as a nation we’ve paid all of our tax contributions for the year, and can start to earn the cash for our wallets. Only took us five months—Adam Smith would be proud.
